


I Like Me Better With You

by BlindCupid



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Female Severus Snape, Friends to Lovers, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:09:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26875708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlindCupid/pseuds/BlindCupid
Summary: “Whatever happened to that crush you had on me? Little Miss Snape who used to follow me around like an adoring puppy dog? You used to brew me potions for Christmas presents. You brewed me snow one year. You even wrote me a poem on Valentine's day… in your second year, wasn’t it? My little Severina, where did she go?”“She grew up. I believe it’s called mental development.”“Ouch. That hurts Miss Snape, so you grew out of me? Who gets my potions and poems these days?”She opened and closed her mouth before finally admitting, “No one.”
Relationships: Lucius Malfoy/Severina Snape, Lucius Malfoy/Severus Snape
Comments: 36
Kudos: 188





	I Like Me Better With You

**Author's Note:**

> “Why are we friends, again?” Lucius asked, watching Severina finish up her work. She looked a mess and had called him a ‘vain pompous spoiled brat’… again. Even after delivering the heartbreaking news of discovering Cissy’s Italian lover!

Narcissa and a few friends had gone to Rome and Lucius had thought to surprise her and perhaps finally propose… It was just youthful exploration before they settled down, Cissy had defended, but it had hurt his pride.

So, to his friend he had come to vent... he was Lucius Malfoy! He was rich and influential, intelligent and ambitious, not to mention dashingly handsome. He had everything to recommend him. Did Narcissa really see being with him as settling?

And Snape had the audacity to snark at his crisis! Really, why was he friends with her?

“Because you are a closet potions nerd.” She answered smooth and bland.

Lucius chuckled, “Oh right, always forget,” and twirled his cane, studying the silver snake beneath his hand.

He watched her brew and soaked in the keen sense of easy companionship and natural contentment he felt whenever they had moments like this. If only they could always be like this.

“Whatever happened to that crush you had on me? Little Miss Snape who used to follow me around like an adoring puppy dog? You used to brew me potions for Christmas presents. You brewed me snow one year. You even wrote me a poem on Valentine's day… in your second year, wasn’t it? My little Severina, where did she go?”

“She grew up. I believe it’s called mental development.”

“Ouch. That hurts Miss Snape, so you grew out of me? Who gets my potions and poems these days?”

She opened and closed her mouth before finally admitting, “No one.”

It wasn’t fair for him to tease her like that, he knew. He knew she was in love with him. It didn’t really do any good to bring it up. It’s not like they could do anything about it. If not Narcissa Black, he would have to marry another pureblood.

Would he be doomed with a wife who saw marrying him as settling? It struck him with a sudden understanding that Severina Snape would never see him as settling…

Maybe...

“Miss Snape,” his words caught on his tongue. To offer her more… not everything, there were some things, not even a Malfoy could afford, but maybe a compromise. The offer, however, stuck in his usually confident throat.

“Yes, Lucius, what is it?” She turned from her work with concern lacing her voice.

In truth, he had never considered her as an option for more. She was five years younger than him, she had always been just this kid who hung on his every word and amazed him with her mind for potions. Yes, potions was a passion of his, and though he could afford to be without brewing himself Severina pushed him, challenged him, and kept his interest peaked with the endless possiblities potions afforded. Not to mention how mesmerizing she could be when she brewed with single-minded focus or spoke with passion on a subject they both enjoyed.

All the while, he knew she loved him, but there was always something to keep her at arm's length: her age, his feelings for Cissy, her blood status, his family duty. Now, all those things seemed to be swallowed up in the black of her eyes.

Narcissa was perfect for him, in every way they made sense. They even looked perfect and beautiful together. He thought they would simply continue to be perfect together.

Severina was everything he shouldn’t want, but all it took was one thought, just an idea of more and it was like striking a match over the kindling. He was burning inside and it was spreading through his core and spiking through his limbs. He had lit something inside of himself that had been building for longer than he had realized.

She wasn’t a child anymore, she was nearly nineteen. She wasn’t a schoolgirl with a crush, she was his friend, his best friend. He was more often with her or at least in communication with her than he was with Cissy. Cissy was at times too busy for him, off with one of her many friends. Severina always had time for him or made time for him and he knew it was because she loved him. He knew it.

That’s why the words wouldn’t come out. If he offered them a taste of her love in physical expression how would they ever come back from that?

He wanted to kiss her. His eyes felt heavy and her lips were within reach. If he kissed her, the fire that had ignited would spread and consume them. If he kissed her, he wouldn’t stop.

She leaned in closer out of concern.

He could see them together. He could see themselves entwined and completely lost in their passion. He could see her arching into him and raking her hands across his bare skin. He could almost hear her moans and his name on her lips begging for more, begging for their pleasure in each other never to end.

Her cool fingers touched his heated cheek, “Lucius, are you feeling alright?”

His eyes met hers and he could only admit, “I want something I can’t have Severina.”

She smirked, “And it was such a shock to get you into this state? What a privileged life you do lead, Mr. Malfoy, to be surprised to come across a thing you cannot have and here I thought Malfoys could afford anything they wanted.”

“Not everything it would seem.” Her hand tried to move away from his cheek, but he leaned into it and pressed his cheek to her palm. His eyes fluttered shut at the sensation of being held by her. It was only her hand, only a hint of what he could have, but what would it cost to have it? Only everything he had.

“What is it? What is it?” She asked twice, once in hope and the second in desperation. She added her other hand to his bared cheek and cupped his face

His breath shuddered. She was so near, he could almost feel her breath on his face. He felt tears build in his eyes and he sapped them back with a snapping open of his eyes and an angry glare at his best friend who loved him more than he bear.

“Something I can’t afford," he gripped her wrists and pulled them off of him as he stood with his cane. Lucius steadied his voice, “as I said.”

Her face went blank and lifted her chin, but her eyes demurred and she nodded slightly. “I understand.”

“How could you? I haven’t even said anything.” And her eyebrow arched as if to say she could read him without words and that he had said enough.

Severina threw up her arms in exasperation, “I have never asked you for anything you couldn’t afford. Honestly, I don’t know where this is coming from. You were the one who looked like you were on the verge of a panic attack.”

She sighed, “Lucius, this isn’t like you. You want something, say it. When has anything you’ve wanted been outside your reach? You have a problem you haven’t worked out yet, talk to me about it. You always have in the past. Often times you figure out a solution before I can get a word in edgewise. We’re friends, Luc, just say what you need to say.”

She looked like she built a steel wall behind her eyes and yet her face looked softened with resolute acceptance of whatever rejection was to come.

“I was just… We are friends, as you say. We tend to be… comfortable with each other and enjoy each other’s company. I was thinking that perhaps we could… If you were willing, we could explore…” He licked his lips and closed his eyes and tried to control the pace of his heart.

“Lucius, if you can’t say it, maybe we shouldn’t,” Severina said tired and disappointed. She turned her head back to the forgotten potion, her hair falling into her face and hiding her expression.

His hand darted out and wrapped her waist, pulling her back towards him. She looked up at him in surprise, her lips falling slightly apart, and gasped a quick breath. Lucius dipped his face beside hers and tried to ask…

“Severina, will you…” he wanted her lips and his mouth ghosted across her jaw toward them. 

_kiss me…_

“Will you…” he tried again and felt her breasts pressing again his chest. He spread his hand across her lower back and kept her close, feeling the heat of her rising and mingling with his own burning skin.

_make love to me…_

His breath was heavy and his mind clouding, “Will you…” and his senses were drowning in her. Even wrapped in his arms, she felt out of reach. Even with her heart beating against his chest, she felt too far from him.

_be mine…_

“Lucius.” Her voice pleaded.

“…be my,” _mistress, my lover, my friend_ but his tongue would not say it and his mind was overcome by his heart which spoke another word, “wife.”

At the word, her palm pushed against his chest, just above his rapid heart and she breathed out, “Something you can’t afford.”

“What did you think I was going to ask for?”

“To be your, mistress, maybe.”

“Is that what you want?”

“It’s the most I could have hoped for.”

“And now?”

“Now you make us both fools.”

“Yes. Exactly. It goes against reason, doesn’t it? Or does it, Severina, why not?”

She laughed humorlessly, “You tell me. How many generations of pureblood Malfoy are you Lucius? Will you be the one to break it? Luc, please be serious. Your father would never approve. You could be disinherited. Would you really turn your back on your duty to your family name?”

Lucius’s face twisted in pain as he thread his fingers carefully through her hair at her temple, letting the strands slip through his fingers. His eyes returned to hers and his heart clenched painfully, “I don’t want to be without you.”

Her hands settled on his chest, “You won’t be Lucius. I’ll always be your friend when you need me. Your lover when you want me.”

“But never my wife.”

“You would be so unhappy…” she muttered under her breath and knew he wasn’t supposed to have heard. _She’s wrong,_ he thought. He would be miserable every moment he had to look at another woman call her wife.

“Ask me again, Lucius. Ask me to be your mistress and I will say yes. Narcissa won’t mind if it’s me. She would never see me as a true threat, only your little pet, your charity case.”

Her words were bitter, but he knew them to be true and sensible. She would be a perfect mistress. No one would bat an eye. All that would change from what they were already was a meeting of bodies as well as minds and hearts as well as friendship.

“Is that all you want?” He asked, starting to feel cold.

“Of course.”

“You don’t love me, then. You just want a comfortable situation? Slake your lust, perhaps?” His nostrils flared and he jerked her firmly to his chest. “I could certainly oblige if that’s all you want.”

She held fire in her eyes that burned with pain, “Don’t. Lucius, you know… you know, I… damn it! I love you too much! To ask you more than you can give… to give up all that you have, you don’t understand what that might mean. You haven’t any idea what it would mean to have nothing. I would never ask you that.”

He kept his firm hold on her but kissed her brow gently, “You’re not asking, I am. Will you marry me, Severina Snape? Will you be my wife?”

Her breath shuddered and he could hear the tears in her voice, “Lucius, don’t ask me. Please, don’t ask me.”

“An answer, just give me an answer. A yes or a no would do.”

He could feel her body give in, molding against him, and she rested her head against his chest, “When have I ever said no to you?”

He pressed his lips into her hair, “Then say, yes.”

“Not until you explain to me why. Why are you asking me to marry you?”

Lucius pulled back to search her face and realized he hadn’t done this properly at all.

“Oh, Severina. You are my best friend. I’m never happier, more content, more myself than when I am with you. I love you.”

There were tears in her eyes when she asked, “How? When, Lucius?

“Steadily. With each conversation, each correspondence, each meeting of our eyes, or accidental touch, my love grew steadily. Like stacking wood on a bonfire and dousing it with fuel, all it took was a spark and it was ready to burn with fury. Severina, your answer, please.”

She lifted her mouth to his and spoke the word into his soul, “Yes.”

Their lips met in a controlled calm even as their hearts raged with passion. As it is when friends first meet in the realm of lovers, their hearts were ready before the rest of them. Their lips searched and found and looked again for what was there all along— longing, passion, love, and acceptance— all anyone could hope for in the lips of requited love.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if this is going to go anywhere... but I'm leaving the chapters 1/? just in case.


End file.
